Roles of Indigenous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Composts in Improving Tomato Tolerance to Water Stress under Controlled Greenhouse Conditions

¹Laboratory of Pharmacology, Neurobiology, Anthropobiology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Department of biology, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

²Laboratory of Agro-Foods, Biotechnologies and Valorisation of Plants Bioresources, Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Department of biology, Marrakech 40000, Morocco

*Corresponding Author: Khalid Fares, Laboratory of Pharmacology, Neurobiology, Anthropobiology and Environment, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Department of biology, Marrakech 40000, Morocco; Tel: +212-661-232-285; Email: [email protected]

Received Date: October 11, 2023

Publication Date: October 19, 2023

Citation: Mobaligh M, et al. (2023). Roles of Indigenous Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Composts in Improving Tomato Tolerance to Water Stress under Controlled Greenhouse Conditions. Catalysis Research. 3(3):15.

Copyright: Mobaligh M, et al. © (2023). 

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present study was to demonstrate the influence of natural fertilizers based on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and composts as well as chemical fertilizer (NPK) on growth and tolerance of tomato seedlings to water stress. A greenhouse experiment was conducted with tomato seedlings, which were grown in the presence of AMF and/or composts and NPK alone under two water regimes: favorable water regime (75% field capacity (FC) and water stress (35% FC).

The results obtained water stress negatively affected the tomato growth, physiology and biochemistry. However, AMF inoculation combined with NPK or composts improved the total dry biomass of tomato seedlings under normal and drought stress conditions compared to the respective controls. In addition, tomato plants physiology was significantly increased when AMF was combined with C4 or C5 by improving the photosynthetic pigments content (385.2% and 337.4%) as well stomatal conductance (48.3 % and 54.3 %) and chlorophyll fluorescence (43.5 % and 17.2 %) under drought stress conditions compared to the control. Control plants were significantly the most affected by water stress resulted in increased hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. The plants treated with composts as well as AMF alone or combined with composts showed a better capacity of tolerance of water stress by a significant accumulation of soluble sugars, proteins and a high activity of antioxidant enzymes, acting as a control system of reactive oxygen species and thus providing protection against oxidative stress under drought stress. These results highlight the importance of using these biofertilizers, especially in bipartite combination of composts and AMF in improving tomato adaptation to water stress.

Keywords: Water stress, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, compost, physiological and biochemical parameters, antioxidant enzymes